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I fish this area religiously and frequent both dockside and rigolets marina...were seeing the same problem we've had in past years. The salinity levels in the lake aren't were they used to be so the shrimp simply aren't coming in like they were in years past. Those establishments go to great lengths to provide their clients with live bait. Shrimp have had to be brought in from venice for quite awhile now. You have to realize the simple fact that shrimp, like all marine animals, are sensitive. Changes in water temperature, salinity, oxygen levels, nitrate levels all come into play when keeping shrimp alive. For example: the shrimp are caught in venice in their natural habitat. they rank a 10. they are then loaded into a large holding tank and transported to slidell. Along the ride the water quality detiorates and the shrimp are also beat around. they rank a 8. The shrimp arrive here and are put in tanks where they get back into some clean water but the salinity levels aren't anywhere near what they are in venice. they are a 7. A day or two go by and you purchase 150 shrimp and put them in a livewell filled with the top layer of lake pontchatrain water probably right at the launch. That water is typically in the lower 80s and doesn't have a lick of salt plus all the polution from everyones outboards. Now your shrimp drop drastically to maybe a 4 within a hour. Next they are beaten through that baitwell while you head to your secret fishing hole. Over the coarse of the next few hours the shrimp are dieing and releasing nitrates and nitrites all in that water basically poisoning the water you keep them in. Combine that with all the pollutants on your hands you stick in there to grab shrimp and bingo your shrimp are at a 0-1 after 3 or 4 hours.

Here's a few tricks i've found that help

1. when you purchase your shrimp ask for an extra bucket of water out of the holding tank, i've never seen them say no to someone who asks. dont even turn on your recirculator until your way out from the launch and in cleaner water.

2. i've found putting a towel in the livewell at an angle gives the shrimp something to grab onto during the ride and seems to prolong life.

3. keeping water temperature down is a major factor...you don't want to just dump ice in there instead freeze some empty 20oz bottles and drop one in to keep the water cool. Remember everytime you turn on your recirculator your just filling it with hot water...going from hot to cold that fast will shock the shrimp and kill them faster

4. get some sort of an oxygenator not just a recirculator. some recirculators have them built in if not simply putting one of those air bubblers in there will help.

5. instead of just running the recirculator actually drain the water out of the tank becasue all the waste is just sitting on the bottom not being discarded when you just recirculate the water. also this is a prime time to pick out the dead shrimp which poison the water

6. last but not least is use a bait net..do not put your hand in the live well more than you have to. i keep some little buckets on board to put 5-7 shrimp in at a time instead of constantly going in the livewell.

I have not tried adding salt but i would be careful becasue too much salt is just as bad as not enough...the main thing is not changing their environment too suddenly. I have contemplated getting some stress coat, found at pet stores. i know it may sound obsurd but when shrimp are as expensive as they are and i'm spending $40-50 a trip on them i want them to last more than a couple hours. Anyways sorry for the long post i just wanted to make sure people realize that this is NOT the marinas fault in any way shape or form. This is just one of the many things we will have to deal with since closing the MRGO. hope this makes sense and helps yall out

here's a link to an article Todd Masson did about our fishing this past week...i'm hesitant to even post this on this site because it's gone so downhill but its been great fishing and id like to share with the POSITIVE members of the site..my hat's off to Capt. Poirier for putting us on the fish trip after trip! call Trophy Trout Charters if you want in on the action!!!

Looking for a camp in the slidell area to rent out during the week when i'm off from the fire house in baton rouge so i can fish a couple days in a row without pulling the boat back and forth. Don't mind doing all the cleanup just need a place to dock the boat and lay our head down after fishing. Any leads would be greatly appreciated!

Took a ride out to the bridges yesterday just to check on water quality and boy was it piss poor. We only fished for a few hours in evening. Wasn't really expecting to catch much but we didn't even get a bite. Couldn't taste any trace of salt in the water and it was dirty everywhere. Hopefully the storms and winds will calm down soon so the water will clean up. Anyways if your looking for the trout better head south...

done a good bit of trolling the last couple years but am going to arm myself with some leadcore line this year. question i have is how many colors are yall letting out to get to the strike zone when pulling traps with a trailer? some articles say 2 and some say 4...just trying to get an idea before i lose a couple rigs from getting hungup...i'm talking about the causeway not trestles...thanks for the help fellas

despite the forecast the urge to go is too strong so i'm gonna hope to bounce around and stay away from the storms tomorrow...may be a complete bust but its my first day off work so i've gotta get on the water, lol hopefully the rain holds off for a few good hours of fishing before we get run off...if anyone else is going out to bayou b tues or wed let me know

yesterday was absolutly gorgeous on the lake...just wish the tide was falling instead of coming in all day...anyways we had to really work for our fish, they were smaller than normal too and only two flounder?? still had a gread day on the water...

when i left baton rouge i couldn't decide wether to go to the causeway or trestles...ive been fishing the causeway with minimal results so i figured id go give my spots from last year a shot on the trestles and see if some fish had shown up yet...talked to a few other guys and got pretty good reports so to dockside we went...grabbed a few packs of matrix shad and headed to the bridge...morning started off fast and furious with some real good size specks hitting the deck...as we headed south the bite turned off..hit a few spots and then finally headed north...found the armada on the north end of the bridge and picked a spot to slide in and anchor up...we finished our limit out there catching the last 37 of our fish in one spot...total for the day was 50 real nice specks, 6 flounder and 1 big ole drum

Headed out yesterday morning against all odds to try and find a few fish...Started off in the hot water canal and pulled some real good quality specks out but the action was pretty slow so we made a move to the rocks in the MRGO...first stop produced nothing so we jumped to teh other side and found some fish stacked up in a small pocket...Caught a mess of trout and flounder there adn a monster redfish, once they died out we made one more stop for reds on teh way in...caught two more reds and called it a day since we all had things to do that afternoon...Caught all fish on a smoked swimming mullet gulp bouncing the bottom

Looking for a duck lease for next season, would much rather hunt in some timber with mallards than the marsh with teal...if you have any openings or know somewhere me and a couple buddies from the fire dept can go please let me know!! Thanks

Buddy of mine is giving me permission to hunt his lease this weekend...it hasn't been hunted all year so he can't really give me any advice on hunting it..i've never hunted the area so i was seeing if someone could chime in with a few pointers...do those birds want a big decoy spread? do they like mojo's? aggressive calling? I dont have a surface drive so were taking my bay boat as far as we can then a canoe the rest of the way so i guess we'll just be standing in the grass on the edge of the pond to hunt...were also going to try and catch some specks during the day but i dont see any posts of anyone catching down there...any advice on that would be awesome too! Thanks and will report when we get back

me and a few buddies want to go on one of the no limit goose hunts this year...have any of you been and have a place to reccomend?? wondering if there are good places here in LA of if we should go to Texas...let me know what you think

planning a bachelor trip and looking for a big boat to charter for a weekend trip...im having trouble finding anyone with a big convertable to charter everyone ive found is using center consoles or cat's...but were looking to make a weekend out of it..any suggestions?? please let me know thanks!

pretty sure your best bet for drum is on the LN bridge like previously mentioned...but as far as dockside goes I launched there yesterday...the gate is open on the back down and no signs or anything about paying so for now I'm using it as a free launch while I chase my targeted species

I fish this area religiously and frequent both dockside and rigolets marina...were seeing the same problem we've had in past years. The salinity levels in the lake aren't were they used to be so the shrimp simply aren't coming in like they were in years past. Those establishments go to great lengths to provide their clients with live bait. Shrimp have had to be brought in from venice for quite awhile now. You have to realize the simple fact that shrimp, like all marine animals, are sensitive. Changes in water temperature, salinity, oxygen levels, nitrate levels all come into play when keeping shrimp alive. For example: the shrimp are caught in venice in their natural habitat. they rank a 10. they are then loaded into a large holding tank and transported to slidell. Along the ride the water quality detiorates and the shrimp are also beat around. they rank a 8. The shrimp arrive here and are put in tanks where they get back into some clean water but the salinity levels aren't anywhere near what they are in venice. they are a 7. A day or two go by and you purchase 150 shrimp and put them in a livewell filled with the top layer of lake pontchatrain water probably right at the launch. That water is typically in the lower 80s and doesn't have a lick of salt plus all the polution from everyones outboards. Now your shrimp drop drastically to maybe a 4 within a hour. Next they are beaten through that baitwell while you head to your secret fishing hole. Over the coarse of the next few hours the shrimp are dieing and releasing nitrates and nitrites all in that water basically poisoning the water you keep them in. Combine that with all the pollutants on your hands you stick in there to grab shrimp and bingo your shrimp are at a 0-1 after 3 or 4 hours.

Here's a few tricks i've found that help

1. when you purchase your shrimp ask for an extra bucket of water out of the holding tank, i've never seen them say no to someone who asks. dont even turn on your recirculator until your way out from the launch and in cleaner water.

2. i've found putting a towel in the livewell at an angle gives the shrimp something to grab onto during the ride and seems to prolong life.

3. keeping water temperature down is a major factor...you don't want to just dump ice in there instead freeze some empty 20oz bottles and drop one in to keep the water cool. Remember everytime you turn on your recirculator your just filling it with hot water...going from hot to cold that fast will shock the shrimp and kill them faster

4. get some sort of an oxygenator not just a recirculator. some recirculators have them built in if not simply putting one of those air bubblers in there will help.

5. instead of just running the recirculator actually drain the water out of the tank becasue all the waste is just sitting on the bottom not being discarded when you just recirculate the water. also this is a prime time to pick out the dead shrimp which poison the water

6. last but not least is use a bait net..do not put your hand in the live well more than you have to. i keep some little buckets on board to put 5-7 shrimp in at a time instead of constantly going in the livewell.

I have not tried adding salt but i would be careful becasue too much salt is just as bad as not enough...the main thing is not changing their environment too suddenly. I have contemplated getting some stress coat, found at pet stores. i know it may sound obsurd but when shrimp are as expensive as they are and i'm spending $40-50 a trip on them i want them to last more than a couple hours. Anyways sorry for the long post i just wanted to make sure people realize that this is NOT the marinas fault in any way shape or form. This is just one of the many things we will have to deal with since closing the MRGO. hope this makes sense and helps yall out

i'm not going to feed into the drama but do want to say that i fished with henry all week. We had absolutely gorgeous fish each and every trip! i beat my personal best and had a blast doing it with great friends...regardless what anyone wants to say i was there and caught alot of those fish. Capt. Henry Poirier is on the big trout if anyone wants in give him a call!

in the past this time of year the south end was the only place i would be. but i haven't done much damage down there this year everything has seemed to be north of midlake...but there are some good areas down there for sure that have some good structure on the bottom...try the second firebreak from the south shore and also around piling 43 they used to be some good spots in the past years

i've launched at dockside probably over a hundred times in the last few years. they do have a gate but i've never seen it closed as i usually head out real early. There has been a real hard time with getting live shrimp so far this year their actually paying someone to drive them in on trucks from venice to try and satisfy their customers. The entire staff at dockside has always been nothing but courteous to me and everyone i've sent there. i was there yesterday evening and they were actually picking on one of the guys about over sleeping and getting there a little late. it was an accident not the end of the world fellas...dont come on this site and talk bad about the place for a slip up.

launch at dockside and run over to the trestles...im sure there will be boats lined up after these reports have started to hit the site but i caught most of my fish around midlake the last few days on live shrimp and plastics...more than likely you wont find any live shrimp unless you get theres super early

i fished it for three days catching nice fish everyday. most of my fish came from mid lake area...on both live shrimp and plastics...bigger fish came off plastics. dont know what the weather will do to them but always better to go and find out in my opinion

thank yall for the input...will the rod tips still show plenty of action when pulling with leadcore? i'm sure it'll be a little trial and error and a learning curve but i'm never one to turn down advice from people who know more than me. also a local bait shop told me to try some trolling swivels?? it's an inch long 3/4oz weight with a swivel on each end...anyone use them??

hate to be negative but as a yeti owner i can pretty much promise that no one will want to sell one and if they do it won't be much cheaper than new...there a very quality ice chest as you know and even mine that is over a year old an had thousands of trout/reds/flounder in it i can clean it and it still looks brand new...but good luck with your search!!

yea the weatherman has caused way too many canceled trips where im kicking myself in the butt later that day for not going...so needless to say i'm going tomorrow lol, ill bring the frog togs just in case

I can't count on my fingers and toes how many people ive towed in, i always spend the extra time if a boater looks indistress to go help out if i can...i've been stuck before nad had to paddle for 7 hours while three boats passed before finally getting a tow, let me tell you it SUCKS!! there is much more to being a sportsman than just catching fish or killing ducks nad deer...take the extra 30secs if you see a boat that just looks out of place or possibly something is wrong...95% of the time when i slow down and hollar if everythign is alright i get a thumbs up but ill feel better knowing i stopped and didnt leave someone stranded like i was...i also encourage everyone who fishes to make sure thier safety equipment is up to date...especially flares and fire extinguishers! a VHF radio is definatly a great tool to add to the box as well..just my two cents...